True Compass is the posthumous memoir of United States Senator Edward M. Kennedy that was released September 14, 2009, by Twelve, a division of the Hachette book group.^[1]

History[link]

Kennedy signed up to do the book in the autumn of 2007.^[2] Kennedy received a reported $8 million advance for the work.^[3] It was written with the help of Pulitzer Prize-winning collaborator Ron Powers and was based on contemporaneous notes taken by Kennedy throughout his life, hours of recordings for an oral history project, and long interviews.^[1][4][5] Despite the collaboration, Kennedy literary representative Robert Barnett said that "every word" in the work was Kennedy's.^[5] Kennedy's editor, Jonathan Karp, later said that "it was very clear from the outset that he was setting out to write a work of history, a work of personal history, and that he wanted this book very much to be a legacy."^[2]

After he received his brain cancer diagnosis in May 2008, Kennedy halted work on the book for a while, but then returned to it with renewed vigor and as one of his top priorities.^[2] He died the day a final copy of the book was delivered to his Hyannis Port, Massachusetts home.^[2]

The work was originally intended for publication in 2010, then moved up to October 2009, and then finally moved up to September 2009, less than a month after Kennedy's death.^[5] A Twelve spokesperson said, "The book was completed earlier this summer. Our original publication date was October 6. We’d always hoped to publish sooner. The production process moved faster than expected, so we were able to shave off some time."^[5] After The New York Times obtained the book before its publication date and released some information about it, the Twelve spokesperson said he was "dismayed" that the Times had obtained it and that "we regret that the New York Times did not respect the September 14th release date of 'True Compass', which was carefully coordinated with the senator's family. That copy was obtained without consent or permission from Twelve – or if it was somehow purchased, then it was sold illegally."^[1] True Compass had an announced first printing of 1.5 million copies.^[3]

Themes[link]

The memoir deals with Kennedy's experiences with the assassination of his two older brothers John and Robert, the controversial Chappaquiddick incident, his battle with drinking and with brain cancer, why he decided to run for president in 1980, and his lifelong fight for universal health care.^[1]

A broader theme of the book is, in the words of The New York Times's Michiko Kakutani, "that persistence, perseverance and patience in pursuit of a cause or atonement for one’s failures can lead to achievement and the possibility of redemption."^[6]

Critical and commercial reception[link]

In his review for the Saturday Age, Guy Rundle wrote that the memoir "follows the party line" when discussing the various scandals that "marked" Kennedy's long career in the Senate. He thought it was useful in documenting the campaigns that Kennedy ran in the 1970s and 1980s.^[7] Jonathan Yardley for The Washington Post said that "Kennedy [seeks] to be modest about the successes in his long public life and honest about the failures" but that "like virtually all political autobiographies these days, it has the air of having been written by committee. ... It is not always possible to tell where Kennedy's voice ends and that of his capable collaborator, Ron Powers, begins."^[4] The Washington Times said that "Kennedy has produced a revelatory – though not tabloidesque – account of his storied life and career. While the Massachusetts Democrat was not without ego, he is willing to share the credit both with colleagues and family members for his successes and isn't shy about accepting blame for his many mistakes."^[8]

True Compass sold 170,000 copies during its first five days of publication,^[9] and debuted at number one on the New York Times Best Seller list.^[10] By mid-December 2009, the book has had total sales of some 400,000 copies^[3] and has spent 13 weeks on the New York Times Best Seller list.^[11]

An e-book edition was scheduled for release on Christmas Day 2009.^[3] However, a planned paperback edition was pushed back to 2011 due to the renewed vigor of the hardcover book's sales following a November 2009 appearance by widow Victoria Reggie Kennedy on The Oprah Winfrey Show.^[3]

References[link]

v t e Ted Kennedy February 22, 1932 – August 25, 2009 Electoral history U.S. Senate election in Massachusetts, 1962 U.S. Senate election in Massachusetts, 1964 U.S. Senate election in Massachusetts, 1970 U.S. Senate election in Massachusetts, 1976 U.S. presidential election, 1980 U.S. Senate election in Massachusetts, 1982 U.S. Senate election in Massachusetts, 1988 U.S. Senate election in Massachusetts, 1994 U.S. Senate election in Massachusetts, 2000 U.S. Senate election in Massachusetts, 2006 Books My Senator and Me: A Dog's-Eye View of Washington, D.C. True Compass Family Joan Bennett Kennedy (first wife) Victoria Reggie Kennedy (second wife) Kara Kennedy Allen (daughter) Ted Kennedy, Jr. (son) Patrick Joseph Kennedy II (son) Joseph Patrick Kennedy, Sr. (father) Rose Elizabeth Fitzgerald Kennedy (mother) Joseph Patrick Kennedy, Jr. (brother) John Fitzgerald Kennedy (brother) Robert Francis Kennedy (brother) Related topics Awards and honors Political positions Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act Chappaquiddick incident Mary Jo Kopechne

Look up true in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

True may refer to:

• Truth, the state of being in accord with fact or reality

Arts and entertainment[link]

Music[link]

• True (L'Arc-en-Ciel album), 1996
• True (Mika Nakashima album), 2002
• True (Spandau Ballet album), 1983
  • "True" (Spandau Ballet song)
• True (TrinityRoots album), 2001
• True (TRU album), 1995
• "True" (George Strait song), 1998
• "True" (Ryan Cabrera song), 2004
• "True...", a 2001 song by Riyu Kosaka
• "True", a 2009 song by Brandy Norwood from Human
• "True", a 1987 song by Concrete Blonde from Concrete Blonde
• "True", a 2005 song by Zion I from True & Livin'
• "True Song", a 2002 song by Do As Infinity

Other media[link]

• True (magazine), an American men's magazine
  • GE True, an anthology TV series based on stories from True magazine
• Trace (magazine), formerly True, a British hip-hop magazine
• True (film), a short film directed by Tom Tykwer, starring Natalie Portman

Businesses, organizations and products[link]

• True (cigarette), a brand of cigarettes made by Lorillard Tobacco Company
• True (dating service), an online dating service
• True Corporation, a Thai communications group
• Transit Riders' Union of Edmonton, a Canadian social action group
• Trust for Urban Ecology, a UK ecological organisation

Computing[link]

• true (Unix), a Unix utility
• true, a boolean value
• TRUE (Temporal Reasoning Universal Elaboration), a discrete and continuous time simulation software program for 2D, 3D and 4D modeling

People[link]

• Alfred Charles True, American educator and agriculturist
• Allen Tupper True, American artist
• Andrea True, American pornographic actress and disco singer
• Arnold E. True, American naval officer
• Charles Kittredge True, American clergyman
• Clarence True, American architect
• Delbert Leroy True, American archaeologist
• Everett True, British music journalist
• Frederick W. True, American biologist
• Katie True, American politician
• Laurel True, American artist
• Marion True, American curator
• Rachel True, American actress
• Ronald True, English murderer
• Steve True, American sportscaster
• TRUE, American artist

Places[link]

• True, West Virginia, U.S.
• True, Wisconsin, U.S.

See also[link]

• TRU (group), an American hip hop group
• True self
• Truth value, in logic and mathematics, a logical value

This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.

Tret Fure (born March 18, 1951) is an American singer-songwriter, prominent in the women's music scene.

Fure started her career as a backing vocalist on rock albums by Spencer Davis and Little Feat, and released her self-titled solo debut album in 1973 on MCA Records (produced by Lowell George and featuring Bonnie Raitt). She subsequently left the mainstream music industry, writing and performing as an independent folk artist and working as a staff producer for Olivia Records. She released her first independent album, Terminal Hold, in 1984.

Fure was the professional and personal partner of Cris Williamson, with whom she collaborated on three albums. Fure and Williamson separated in 2000.

Discography[link]

• Tret Fure (1973)
• Terminal Hold (1984)
• Edges of the Heart (1986)
• Time Turns the Moon (1990)
• Postcards from Paradise (1993, with Cris Williamson)
• Between the Covers (1999, with Cris Williamson)
• Radio Quiet (1999, with Cris Williamson)
• Back Home (2001)
• My Shoes (2002)
• Anytime Anywhere (2005)
• True Compass (2007)
• The Horizon (2010)

External links[link]

• Tret Fure
• Tomboy Girl

This article about a singer-songwriter from the United States is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v t e

1. REDIRECT Howard Dean

for the Methodist minister see John Bedford (Wesleyan)

John Bedford (c. 1720 - 1791) was an English iron worker and industrialist.

Life[link]

He was born in Birmingham to John and Sarah Bedford, and followed his father into the iron trade to become a japanner in 1748.

Bedford was perhaps best known for his work in the Mid Glamorgan area of South Wales, but he did not move there directly from his native Birmingham. His career progressed and by 1765 he had moved from Birmingham to Trostrey, in Monmouthshire, and was the manager of a forge. His property and business interests in Birmingham were now managed by his father and it was the sale of one of his properties that financed the purchase of a forge at Rogerstone, South Wales.

He remained there until 1770 when he bought a 80-acre (320,000 m²) estate in Cefn Cribwr, near Bridgend, where he planned to establish not only an iron works, complete with blast furnace and forge, but also the collieries, brickworks, mines and stone quarries to support it. Bedford, it seems, brought a sum of £36,000 to fund this venture and was possibly attracted to the area by the availability of local raw materials and its proximity to the sea via the harbor town of Porthcawl.^[1]

The venture failed to reach its full potential due to a number of factors, which included John Bedford’s own eccentricity, the geographic position of the iron works, his reliance on borrowing and his lack of business acumen. His correspondence indicates that he was more interested in experimentation and development of the iron making techniques than running a viable business. Also apparent through his manuscripts of 1786 was his romantic thoughts about architecture, where he believed aesthetic beauty as important as functionality.^[1]

Although not renowned for his success on business side of iron making he was recognised for his contributions to the iron industry through the vast amount of correspondence he left, now held at the National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth.

John Bedford died on 30 September 1791, at Digbeth, Birmingham, and was buried at Marston Chapel, Hall Green, Birmingham.

His estate was divided between his wife and children and an area of his Cefn Cribwr estate was named Bedford Park, as a dedication to him. After his death the iron works and mine were sold off but the iron working continued until 1836. The brick making and coal mining, however, continued.

His great-grandson was famed aeronautics engineer, Sir Morien Morgan.

References[link]

• Granville, Neville "Cefn Cribwr - Chronicle of a Village", Stuart Williams Publishers, 1980

John Bedford and the Ironworks at Cefn Cribwr

[1]